I will try my very best to get through this post without making any juvenile jokes about meat and/or balls, but I make no promises.
The thing I like most about make ahead freezer meatballs is that they help make so many different quickie week night meals for my family. I can throw together meatball subs, spaghetti and meatballs, Swedish meatballs, meatball pizzas or calzones, barbecued meatballs, TexMex meatballs, sweet and sour meatballs, meatballs and orzo, peppers and pesto meatballs... Much like Bubba from Forrest Gump, we'll be nearly through with basic training by the time I name all the ways I can serve shrimp, I mean, meatballs.
That's... that's about it.
Make ahead meatballs aren't just convenient. They're frugal, too. Whenever I catch ground beef or turkey on sale, I buy it up and make a batch of meatballs for the freezer. It's a good way to use a cheaper cut of meat that's mixed with all kinds of goodness to help it stretch even further. A basic recipe is what I use and I can change it up according to however I'm preparing my meal. It's amazing to me how many different ethnic dishes I can make with this one make ahead staple. Who knew meatballs could be so versatile?
Must.Resist.Urge.To. Make. Salacious.Meatball. Remark.
How many meatballs are served per person depends on the meal. If we're having subs, more are consumed. If we're having spaghetti and meatballs, less. Typically, I serve 4 meatballs per adult, 3 per the older Littles (ages 13 and 17), and 2 per the little-Little (age 7). I generally package meatballs 20 to a bag. I don't measure each meatball by weight. I just eyeball it. We'll get into how to judge the size of each ball a little later. (Yes.)
I think working with meat is gross, but that's just me and my delicate sensibilities talking. (Not making any working with meat jokes. Not making any working with meat jokes.) Unfortunately, I haven't found another effective way to mix all the ingredients together except by hand. It's kind of gross and kind of interesting, too. I guess there is something satisfying about squishing the ingredients by hand. (Oh, dear lord.) I only mention this to prepare you for the mess you're gonna make when dealing with ten pounds of meat and all the fixin's listed above. (Not going there. Must.Not.Go.There.)
You'll find it easier to work in half batches. Just half all the ingredients and mix them, prep the meatballs, bake them, and while the first batch is baking, you can start on the second batch. Easy peasy, right?
I get about 14 dinners out of this and, if I'm frugal by using marked down meat, I spend about $1.25 for each packet of balls. (Yes.Yes.Yes.) Once I add pasta, sauce, or whatever else the recipe calls for, I'm looking at a very inexpensive main entree.
Woot, woot. Peace, B.
You'll need the following ingredients for about 300* meatballs:
10 pounds ground beef (or turkey)
5 onions, minced
10 garlic cloves, minced
10 eggs
5 cups bread crumbs or panko chips
(I make my own bread crumbs because I bake and I think they are better than store bought, but you can use whatever you like here.)
1 cup Worchestershire sauce
2 tablespoons black pepper
You'll also need:
a large mixing bowl
a chopper, food processor, or a good old cutting board and knife
foil lined cookie sheets
space to prep and cool the meatballs
freezer baggies
marker
*I usually get 12 trays of 24 meatballs or 288 meatballs from the recipe as it's listed above. That's a ton of balls. (Ahem.) Sometimes, I mix it up and make a few trays of mini meatballs for soups. (Because sometimes, small balls are better.)
The thing to remember if you want to make more or less meatballs is the following ratio: one pound ground meat, 1/2 onion, 1 clove garlic, 1/2 bread crumbs, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons Worchestershire sauce, and about 1/2 teaspoon black pepper.
How to make a ton of meatballs without destroying your kitchen and making yourself insane...
1. Gather together all of the ingredients and supplies listed above before you start.
2. Work in two batches.
3. Clear off a work space for mixing, rolling, prepping, cooling, etc before you start.
4. Clean as you go.
One Fabulous Confession
Whenever I pull a bag of make ahead meatballs from the freezer and a jar of homemade sauce from the stockpile for a last minute dinner not only do I dazzle my family with my domestic dominance, I feel like a mother loving homesteader who can kick Martha Stewart's ass.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mince onions and garlic. (I use my Pampered Chef chopper to do this, but you use what you like.)
In a large mixing bowl, add all of the ingredients (you'll want to add the bread crumbs last, but whatever works for you) and squish together by hand.
Form the meatballs by taking a small amount of meat in your hand and rolling like play-doh. In the end, you need to have a meatball that's about an inch or an inch & a half in diameter. Don't stress over the size of each ball. You'll just want them relatively uniform in size and around that 1.5 inch mark. You'll be able to eyeball that after the first dozen or so.
Bake for 30 minutes. The meatballs will be browned all over.
I like to remove them from the cookie sheets and drain them on newspaper while they cool. I remove them with tongs by wiggling them back and forth a little (Seriously?) so they come off the foil easier and don't break apart.
You can freeze however many you need in each bag. Just be sure to note the contents, date, and quantity on each bag. You can also flash freeze the meatballs on the pan so the meatballs don't stick to one another in the bag, but I don't have much trouble with sticking. I just freeze the bags flat and they break apart where they touch relatively easy.
